The content in this article is based on an upcoming webinar designed by Liz Mason; the webinar "Build a Budgeting Robot," is being presented on October 20, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.
Budgeting: it’s a critical part of doing business, but one that many business owners dread. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by the process of creating a budget or have simply been too lazy to tackle the task, you’re in luck. Building a budgeting robot is an easier way to handle budgeting, without all the time-consuming manual labor.
In our upcoming webinar on October 20, 2020, we’ll walk you through the steps to building the right automated budgeting process to accomplish your goals. From easy, free, cheap tools for automated budgeting workflows to best practices around budgeting, we’ll cover everything businesses need to know about taking the pain out of budgeting through automation.
Why Budgeting Matters
Budgets are the key way that businesses stay on track financially. With a well thought-out budget in hand, your company stands a much better chance of accomplishing its goals and achieving the growth you desire. Budgets allow you to delegate crucial tasks to managers without fear of overspending – think of budgets as the guardrails that keep your spending in line, no matter who’s in charge of it. Importantly, budgets also improve your ability to report financial results to investors and stakeholders and show that the company is moving in the right direction.
Budgeting has long been dreaded at least in part because it has traditionally been overly time-consuming. While original manual processes eventually evolved thanks to technologies like Excel and email, the process can still be slow and tedious. Approvals still tend to be manual, and any changes that need to be implemented are also typically done by hand.
While all these complaints about budgeting are valid, it’s too important of a task to ignore. Budgeting robots now exist to alleviate the drudgery and get you on the right track.
Budget Automation
Budgeting robots automate the entire budgeting process. The robot will pull prior year department budgets and actuals and compare them for you. Using goals and KPIs you supply, the robot will predict the budget you currently need. It will also help you push approvals through quickly, speeding up the whole budgeting process.
Technology has advanced to the point where there are many tools available to help you build the right budgeting automation. Several apps support budget automation, and tools like Google Sheets, Excel, and Zapier help with budgeting through features like approval workflows and automated updates.
Divvy is an excellent example of a tool that allows you to take complete control of your budgets. You can set up budgets to manage all levels of spending, breaking them out by project, team, event or any other way you want to track spending. Many businesses fail at budgeting and end up overspending because they lack visibility and spending controls. With Divvy, you get real-time visibility and control. You’re able to see and edit everything in your budget as it’s happening via the web and mobile apps. With budget automation, there’s no reason to ever go over budget again.
Best Practices
Even with automation on your side, your budgeting efforts will be most successful when you follow certain best practices. You should strategically implement and regularly review your access and approval controls so you’re sure that decisions are being made by the right people. Reporting and follow-up are critical to ensuring that your budgets are achieving your desired goals. You also need to be cognizant of the timing of your budgeting, so that everything is in place when you need it to be and you’ve had proper time to strategically think it all through.
Now is the time to make budgeting automation work for you. To learn more about making and executing a budget plan and building your own budgeting robot, join us at our upcoming webinar.